SuperDebate stages one-hour recorded debates between leading researchers and thinkers on the questions they know best. You choose the question. We find your opponent. The recording is yours.
The call is thirty minutes and exploratory. Most of it is spent identifying the resolution and possible counterparts for your debate.
Every debate is built around a single claim, the resolution: what the debate is about and what each side is defending.
The resolution comes from you. On the first call, we shape it together until it is something you would be excited to argue and it leaves a fair case on the other side. Nuanced positions get reframed, never flattened.
A debate is only as good as the person across from you. Once the resolution is set, we recruit yours: someone whose own work has led them to a different conclusion, with the depth to argue it well.
— Damon Centola, Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology & Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
The search takes one to three weeks and requires nothing from you. You see everyone who accepted and choose. The debate is scheduled after that, not before.
The format is adapted from competitive policy debate. Each side gives four timed speeches with equal time. Every argument gets answered, and cross-examination happens face to face.
You lay out your case in full.
Your opponent questions you directly about what you just said.
They lay out the opposing case and answer yours.
SuperDebate's mission is to restore the values of the Greek agora to Western society.John Connor
From first call to finished recording, the process takes a few weeks. Your total time commitment is approximately ninety minutes.
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The fastest way to know whether this is for you is to watch one. The pace, the tone, and what it feels like when two people who know the material actually engage.
SuperDebate is a platform for open debate. We host live debate nights in cities across the country, run tournaments and an online platform, and produce the featured series on this page. Our first flagship event is in Chicago this fall.
We believe debate is not a tool for finding truth so much as a practice that builds better thinkers: sharper arguments, better answers to objections, and genuine respect between people who disagree. Public disagreement has turned into spectacle. We are building the place where it gets to be a sport instead, with rules, standards, and sportsmanship.
SuperDebate was founded by a competitive debater and coach whose students became the first national champions to come from an urban debate league. Two more national champions serve on the advisory board and keep every round honest.
Thirty minutes to talk through the question you would want to argue and who could stand on the other side. Most people leave the call with a draft resolution and a shortlist of names. No obligation either way.
Nothing on the calendar that works? john@superdebate.org reaches John directly.
Your turn to question them.
You answer their case and defend your own.
They do the same.
Analysts frame what is actually in dispute before the closings.
Your final word on why the resolution holds.
Their final word on why it does not.
30 minutes of clocked speech, about 45 on the calendar once introductions and the break are in.
The times above are a starting point rather than a rule. We lengthen speeches for material that needs room, shorten them when it does not, add or drop rounds, and rebuild the sequence when the argument calls for it. Scoring is optional too: plenty of debates run unscored, as a straight exchange on the record. Tell us what would serve your material on the call.
The audience scores each side on four criteria rather than casting one vote for a winner. Charisma is part of argumentation. We just don't let it be the whole of it.
When the closings are done, you both have the option to keep talking on camera, off the clock: points of interest, where your beliefs overlap, what each of you learned. The goal is for both sides to walk away feeling good about the exchange.
We discuss the resolution and identify possible counterparts.
We send a written draft reflecting the call. You revise or approve it.
By email · briefWe research and contact potential opponents. One to three weeks.
No time requiredYou review the candidates who accepted and approve one.
By email · briefWe introduce both sides, schedule the session, and record.
60 min · onlineCurrent resolutions and the thinkers bringing them to the stage.
Associate Professor, School of Life Sciences
Arizona State University
Heritable human genome editing cannot be used responsibly, given the world it would be released into.
Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology & Engineering
University of Pennsylvania
Social change is driven by the structure of the network, not the persuasiveness of the message.
Director, Electricity Law Initiative
Harvard Law School
Data centers should pay the full cost of the power infrastructure built to serve them.
Professor of Cognitive Science, Language & Cognition Lab
UC San Diego
General artificial intelligence is not here, and "general intelligence" is not a coherent thing to claim.
Associate Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Parents should be free to use genetic enhancement on their children.
Associate Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Prediction markets should govern more of our institutional decisions than they do.
“I'm intrigued, and I really appreciate the format. As a former high school LD debater, it appeals.”Mary L. Gray, Senior Principal Researcher, Indiana University
“Seeing domain experts articulate a position they may or may not believe shows a lot about the value of ideas. It's a great format.”Benjamin Bergen, Professor of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego
“What a great effort you're leading. I think we need more efforts in this vein.”René Kizilcec, Associate Professor of Information Science, Cornell University
